Saturday, March 5, 2016

Clint Barton—Hawkeye

Out of all the characters I've tossed together on here, I don't think any of them have gone through as many iterations and Power Level changes as our dear old Hawkeye. The unassuming super-archer is so interesting to get just right, since he uses a lot of archery Edges that are mostly geared towards fantasy settings and has such a wide variety of specialty arrows.

I outline most of my thoughts on all of these design subjects below, but for the most part I think I finally have a finished version of Hawkeye... at least until we see more trick arrows in Civil War.

Clint Barton was been an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. for years, all the way until its collapse in 2014. Recruited from a young age due to his exceptional marksmanship, he was already in a relationship with his future wife, Laura, but requested that Nick Fury keep her and their children out of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s official records to keep them safe.

Barton was eventually given the codename "Hawkeye" by his comrades in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s military arm. He forgoes firearms on most missions, however, preferring the silence and adaptability of modern bows to more "blunt instrument" rifles. One of his most important missions was to assassinate a young Russian agent that went by the name Black Widow, but he instead spared her, opting to put her on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s payroll instead, and they became extremely close friends.

Barton has since been on missions around the world, but was mostly out of harm's way until he was sent as an escort out to New Mexico to keep guard over a mysterious 0-8-4 item that appeared to be some kind of hammer. During an assault from one individual, Hawkeye was pulled from the kill order, but spotted one of the man's accomplices and gave Agent Coulson the idea to tail him. The man later turned out to be Thor, making this Barton's first encounter with superhuman individuals.

Barton was later assigned to Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. to keep watch around the tesseract research facility. Unfortunately, he was one of the individuals affected by Loki's scepter, and he fell under the god's control for some time. He assisted in extracting the tesseract and led teams in both the extraction of an iridium sample and the assault on the helicarrier, disabling two of the engines and freeing Loki from capture before being knocked unconscious by Natasha Romanoff.

Barton then participated in the battle of New York, his piloting skills and marksmanship both assisting both Rogers and Romanoff on the ground, and was made a member of the legendary Avengers super-team, serving with them in most large-scale assaults on HYDRA bases. During the war on Ultron, Barton's farmhouse was used as a safehouse after their defeat in South Africa, and used his abilities in communications to track an imprisoned Romanoff to Sokovia. He was also instrumental in convincing Scarlet Witch to work with the Avengers, though has recently retired from Avenging to spend time with his family.

Hawkeye has two unique Edges, which will be listed in greater detail below, but what I personally find more interesting is the difference between his powers and his gear. His bow is a unique piece of equipment, using normal teflon arrows, as well as two notable specialty arrows (his shock and rope arrows). These are both low-powered enough to warrant being specifically listed, but not enough to eat up his Power Points. Initially I had given him the swinging power, but he only ever uses the rope arrow once to keep himself from dying, rather than to actively swing over the battlefield. His other specialty arrows, however, are otherwise unchanged. The melting arrows are extremely potent, and his anti-tank arrows are extremely heavy hitting, able to take out tanks in a single hit.

All of these arrows are considered Devices, but do not have the Ranged Touch Attack modifier because they can both be used at range or in melee, but can only be launched by his bow (and most of his arrows, such as his anti-tank and stun arrows, are useless in melee as he could be caught in the burst as well).

His custom Edges are Accurate Attack and Rapid Shooter:

Accurate AttackRequirements: Veteran, Agility d8+, Fighting, Shooting, or Throwing d10+
This character is extensively practiced striking targets that are smaller than average; he may halve all Called Shot penalties (but not range or Cover penalties). This Edge may be taken multiple times, each time for a different skill (Fighting, Shooting, or Throwing).

Rapid ShooterRequirements: Novice, Quick Draw, Strength d6+, Shooting d8+
This archer may loose two arrows in rapid succession when firing a bow. This allows you to make an additional Shooting attack per round at –2 to all Shooting rolls. Both attacks must be made at the same time, though they don't need to target the same foe (Wild Cards roll two Shooting dice and one Wild Die).
This Edge cannot be combined with the Aim maneuver or the Marksman Edge, and doesn't work with crossbows.

Hopefully he has more specialty arrows or Edges to work with in Civil War to round him out even more than he already is.
—DoctorBoson

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Find a Hero!

Welcome!

From the ass that brought you Savage Everything! comes a blog solely dedicated to the Savaging of heroes, villains, and Extras from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (shorthanded as MCU)!

For those that are unaware, the MCU is the collection of movies and shows beginning with Iron Man back in 2008 produced in-house by Marvel. This includes The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Daredevil, among other works.

Again, to reiterate from the Ground Rules post, this will only be pulling from sources canon to the MCU—including some of the tie-in comics—but I won't be pulling from the comics universes, nor from movies produced by Fox or Sony, or any of the DC-verse (depending on how the cast ends up, I may end up creating their own separate Savageverse blog as well). If I miss a character (somehow) that you think deserves a spot on the blog, let me know!

If you like the MCU, check out the unofficial wiki for a fair bit of juicy content.

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